Harry Potter And The Pride
by Bibliophilic12
Summary: Harry decides he wants to make the DA bigger and better, and learns a few things himself along the way. There's a new Council taking charge of the Wizarding World. What will happen now? AU sixth year starting after Department of Mysteries battle. Harry/Ginny Soul-Bond fic. Ron/Hermione, Tonks/Remus Neville/Hannah Abbott Disclaimer: I don't own anything recognizable as JK Rowling's
1. Chapter 1: Meeting Goblins

_**THE PRIDE**_

_**Chapter One: Meeting Goblins**_

-Regular Thought-  
>-"Speech"-<br>_-"Parseltongue"-_  
><em>-'Mind Speak'-<em>

* * *

><p><em><strong>~Harry's POV~<strong>_

Contrary to popular belief, after the Battle of the Department of Mysteries, I did more than just brood over Sirius's death. I was actually planning on expanding the DA and making them into something more. It was proven in that fight that we were still hopelessly outmatched by the DE's, and they were going to stop at nothing to get what they wanted. The only reason they didn't use the Killing Curse was that we had something they wanted. It also proved that my friends would not just sit around while I went off and fought Voldemort and his DE's, and I'm not going to let my friends get killed because they don't know how to properly defend themselves.

So I've decided that I'm going to train us all. I'm going to ask Remus to help, and I'm going to continue doing it all in secret. I'll invite a few people I know are trustworthy. I've already had some help from the more neutral Slytherins, like Daphne Greengrass and Blaise Zabini. I think they can be trusted. I know for a fact that Draco Malfoy doesn't really want to be a DE, but he has to because of his parents. That could be really helpful.

I have been stuck at Privet Drive for the past two weeks, but what everyone else doesn't know is that I have snuck out of the house several times. I've gone into Diagon Alley and at Gringotts, I found out that I not only inherited a trust vault for my school years, but also several Lordships and several more estates. After I learned that, and took up those positions (which I was able to because I'm fifteen, and Bonded with Ginny). Then I used the portkeys to go to the estates and check them out. I learned that I also have several abilities that are unavailable to me until I turn either sixteen or seventeen. I've also spoken telepathically with Ginny for the past two weeks.

_**FLASHBACK**_

_I walked into Gringotts, still hiding my identity from everyone around me, which is very hard to do._

_I walked up to a goblin I recognised as Griphook, the goblin I met the first time I entered the bank._

"_Excuse me. You're Griphook, aren't you?" I asked._

"_Yes," he sneered hesitantly, as if confused._

"_I'm Harry Potter, and I wanted to know if there was anything left to me by my parents."_

"_Follow me to Inheritance Offices. I'll take you to Master Banker Rockgrinder," he sneered._

_We walked several hallways in a different direction than I was used to going. We reached a corridor of offices with strange names like Roric and Eitis. The final office we came to said 'Master Rockgrinder.'_

"_Master Rockgrinder, Harry Potter is here for his inheritance."_

"_Excelent. I'll take him from here. Summon Senior Ranok," the new goblin said. "Come in, Mr. Potter."_

"_Hello, sir."_

"_There's no need to be nervous. We will do the Inheritance Test and then we can proceed. We need Senior Ranok for this and then we will be able to take you to your vaults. Part of the test is to confirm your identity. We must ensure that you are who you say you are before we can give you access to the family vaults."_

"_Yes, sir."_

_A knock sounded on the door._

"_Master Rockgrinder, I was told you had an urgent matter to discuss with me," the new goblin said._

"_Yes, it seems Mr. Harry Potter wishes to speak about his inheritance," Rockgrinder said._

"_Ah, I have the Inheritance Test here with me. I anticipated this and have already gotten everything."_

"_Excellent. Now, Mr. Potter, please take this dagger and make a small cut on your finger, then put three drops into this potion and then shake it please. Yes, very good. Now pour it on this parchment and it will spread to mix with the potion and act as ink. It will give you the results of your inheritance."_

"_Excellent, it will show the results in a moment. It is spreading into the parchment now. And there are the results."_

_**Inheritance Test for:**_

_**Harold James Potter**_

_**Father: Lord James Charlus Cameron Potter (deceased)**_

_**Mother: Lady Lillian Marie Evans-Potter (deceased)**_

_**Godfather: Lord Sirius Orion Black (deceased)**_

_**Godmother: Lady Alison Natalia Fortescue-Longbottom (incapacitated)**_

_**Current Guardian: None**_

_**Inheritance: Lord Potter, Lord Peverall, and Lord Gryffindor-Ravenclaw (paternal), Lord Slytherin-Hufflepuff (maternal), Lord Konners, Lord Montain, Lord Jaques, and Lord Black**_

_**Estates: Potter Manor, Potter Castle, Potter Cottage, Potter House, Potter Resort, Peverall Home, Godric's Glen, Raven's Refuge, Snake's Lair, Black Manor, Marauder Resort (full list and locations in ledger)**_

_**Vaults: Potter Family Vault, Potter Treasury, Gryffindor Vault, Ravenclaw Vault, Slytherin Vault, Hufflepuff Vault, Konners Vault, Montain Family Treasury Vault, Black Family Vault**_

_**Investments: see ledger for full detail**_

_**Heirlooms: see ledger**_

_**Monetary Assets: see ledger**_

_I sat confused by what I had read, but I knew one thing for sure: I needed to check out these estat__es._

"_Now, Mr. Potter, you can take the rings that show you are a Head of House and accept your position. You will also need to take the test to see if there are any hereditary abilities you may have like a talent for a particular branch of magic or a special ability. You add another three drops to the remainder of this potion and pour it on this other parchment. Then it will sink in just as before and the enchantments will cause it to act as ink. It will show your abilities," Ranok said._

_I did and then the ink sunk into the parchment, reminding me of Tom Riddle's diary from second year, when the ink would disappear into the pages and it would write back. I knew it wasn't like the diary though. Then the writing reappeared._

_**Ability Test for:**_

_**Harold James Potter**_

_**Abilities: wandless magic - sixteen, wordless magic - sixteen, occlumency - sixteen, legilimency - sixteen, parseltongue, mage sense - sixteen, mage sight - sixteen, voice magic - sixteen, partial Metamorph - sixteen, partial Seer - sixteen**_

_**Magical Core Level: 324 (high)**_

_**Special Talents: offensive/defensive magic, transfiguration, charms, potions**_

_**Special Details: blocked Soul-Bond, earth and air elemental**_

"_What does it mean, 'blocked Soul-Bond?" I asked._

"_It means, Lord Potter, that you and your Soul-Mate have a connection that is very special and very rarely seen. It means that you are one soul in two bodies almost. You will have the ability to share senses, speak telepathically, and teleport to each other. It must first be connected."_

"_Can you tell who the person I'm Bonded with is?" I asked._

"_It is possible to tell. I know how you can find out. There is a book in a special part of one of our research departments that shows all Bonds and the ones they are involved in. Until they are Bonded, it is counted as blocked, so to speak. I'll go get the book."_

"_Thank you, sir."_

_When Ranok returned, he carried a large book that apparently had information about all Soul-Bonds. Ranok opened the book and flipped through the pages until he found the 'P' section. He kept searching through until he found my name, and right beside it was the name Ginevra Molly Weasley._

"_It appears that the new Lady Potter will be Miss Ginevra Weasley. If you contact her and you have some kind of physical contact, you should connect and unblock the Bond. This also, along with the fact you are now Lord Potter, makes you both emancipated and counted as adults in the Wizarding World."_

"_Thank you for telling me this Senior Ranok. It was very informative. Can I visit my vaults?"_

"_Yes, though I would recommend not visiting them all today. We will go to the Potter, Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin vaults. We will go through the Black vaults to remove anything that could be dangerous or harmful, free of charge, for all of your business here today. Now that you have the rings, you will be able to portkey to any of your estates. The majority of the estates have been kept up by house-elves, with the exception of Black Manor, Potter Cottage, and Snake's Lair."_

"_Thank you for the information. I will likely visit again sometime in the next few weeks."_

"_Goodbye, Lord Potter. Good luck with Miss Weasley and your Bond. I must return to my office," Ranok said._

"_Right, follow me, Lord Potter. I shall take you to the vaults myself. I wish to inform you of a few other things," Rockgrinder said._

"_Of course sir."_

"_Now, you noticed on the Abilities Test that it said that you have earth and air elemental powers, correct?"_

"_Yes."_

"_Well, the elemental abilities are actually what gave your family it's name. They used their earth powers to create elegant designs out of clay and rock. Then they used their air powers to dry them."_

"_I think I understand where this is going. Is there a way for me to train with these?"_

"_Yes. I believe that there are currently only three other elementalists, but none with more than one power. They are an American witch with mastered fire elemental powers, a French witch with adequately mastered air elemental powers, and a Bulgarian wizard with mastered earth elemental powers. I would recommend that you meet with each of them, including the fire elemental in order to gain an understanding of your new powers."_

"_But I wouldn't be able to get away from my relatives to be able to master my powers."_

"_Ah, I can help you there. It's a very closely-guarded secret, but the goblin nation works with Unspeakables with their time magics. We are actually able to back further than the few hours the ones the ministry has available go. I can give you one and you can go back in time to have the time to master your powers. You can slip away early in the mornings and go to meet with the other elementals, then at night you can travel back in time to that morning and have been home all day."_

"_That's very cool, but are you sure it's okay?"_

"_I'm positive. I also think that Miss Weasley or rather Lady Potter might want to go as well."_

"_I'll think about it, and if we agree, we'll both be here two weeks from today."_

"_I look forward to seeing you then. I'd suggest asking the elemental masters to teach you sword-fighting. You may find a few swords in your vaults. It will help in dueling and if you have the patience, in some aspects of your elemental powers."_

"_Thank you. I'll see if I can find a sword balanced enough for me in one of the vaults."_

_**END FLASHBACK**_

* * *

><p><em><strong><em><strong>AN: This story basically diverges from canon after the Battle of the Department of Mysteries. Instead of moping and brooding over Sirius' death and the prophecy, Harry becomes resigned to the fact that his friends and the other DA members aren't just going to sit around waiting for him to defeat Voldemort. They're going to fight too. So he decides to make a bigger and better DA.<strong>_**_


	2. Chapter 2: Meeting Remus

_**THE PRIDE**_

_**Chapter Two: Meeting Remus**_

-Regular Thought-  
>-"Speech"-<br>_-"Parseltongue"-_  
><em>-'Mind Speak'-<em>

* * *

><p><em><strong>~Harry's POV~<strong>_

Since that visit, I have snuck over to the Burrow, where the Weasleys are this summer and Bonded with Ginny, and we have talked every day telepathically since then. I told her about the goblin's offer and how it would work, and she told me that she thinks we should. She also agrees about the DA.

We are going to Gringotts today to confirm meet with the elemental masters and get the Time-Turner.

* * *

><p><em><strong>~Ginny's POV~<strong>_

Harry and I met the first time this summer in the orchard of the Burrow. When I first read the letter he sent me, I didn't know what to think, I was still getting over my crush on him and he was still my brother's best friend. Then all of a sudden I get a letter in the middle of the night telling me to go to the orchard after lunch tomorrow. Then I go and he explains his crazy visit at Gringotts and the Bond, then we do Bond and now he's in my head and he knows all of my memories and thoughts, and I know his. I also learned the prophecy.

Then, we started to talk about the DA, and we've decided that we are going to actually make it into the army the name implies. The adults keep telling us to leave everything to them, but they aren't making much of a difference. You'd think that by now they would realise that we aren't just children.

We've been a part of this since the real beginning of the second war. It wasn't when Cedric was killed, though that was the official beginning, it was the moment Harry was introduced to the Wizarding World and Hagrid took him to Diagon Alley, the same day Voldemort attempted to steal the Philosopher's Stone.

I still couldn't believe the Dursleys, though, and Harry was the only thing keeping me from going over there and hexing them all.

So after several hours, I had to go back inside, and Harry had to leave or someone would notice his absence from Privet Drive. We still kept a steady stream of mental conversation going the rest of the day, and most of the time we're talking all day long.

We made a lot of carefully laid out plans, including talking to Professor Snape and Remus. I still don't know why he trusts Snape, but I suppose he has saved Harry's life before and there is the fact that Dumbledore trusts him and he's a spy for the Order.

So, today was the day Harry told Master Rockgrinder that he would be coming back to Gringotts. He sent a letter to Rockgrinder, saying we would be there and that we would like to meet the elemental masters and train with them. We didn't have to be there for several hours.

We met in the orchard and we both portkeyed to Potter Cottage, the home in Godric's Hollow and walked to the gates and pushed them open.

We had come here to meet for the most part over the past week. The first week we visited all of the estates and some of the house-elves (most actually) were eager for a job. We had them busy making the homes all habitable, especially Potter Manor and Potter Castle. They were appalled at how Potter Cottage looked after that Halloween night.

They got to work straight away with putting a glamor up around the fence so that it looked to stay the dilapidated old house that it was after that night and then repaired it to its former glory in only a week. So now we come to this estate when we meet.

It is now a two-story cottage that looks almost exactly as it did before that night. The roof had fallen in so it had to be completely re-done. The bedrooms had been upstairs and had been exposed to the elements. The furniture was replaced or repaired, the walls repainted, and the kitchen re-stocked.

It was a home again for the first time in many years. We had owled Remus and asked if he had been in the house at all since that night and had admitted to going that next day after Sirius' arrest and saved a few things before the roof had fallen in. So we told him to meet us here today.

We were going to tell him about most of what has happened over the past two weeks. I think Harry and he both need something that can remind them of what they both lost, even if only for a moment. Harry lost his parents and father figure, and Remus had lost his best friends-brothers practically.

'Hey, Gin?' Harry asked.

'Yes?'

'Do you think Remus will help us teach the DA some things. Maybe we can even convince him to stay here. Or maybe the Manor. Grandad Charlus' portrait said that he had been there several times over the summers with my dad and Sirius. He might even help us become Animagi.'

'That's really a good idea. Then if we have him as an ally, we can have inside information on the Order and Dumbledore will try to have him meet with the werewolves, so we can have information on that front as well as the DEs and Tom if Snape agrees,' I agreed.

"Let's get inside. I'm glad we don't need the Fidelius here too. This is better because it will completely confuse everyone as to where we are with this still looking to all of the world as if it's still some war monument for your parents' deaths and Tom's defeat," I said when we got inside.

We headed through the front door and straight into the kitchen where it had been remodeled with Muggle kitchen appliances at Harry's request.

It now had a refrigerator, freezer, stove, microwave, and dishwasher. The cabinets and pantry were full of food and the refrigerator and freezer had plenty more food and drinks, Muggle and Magical alike. I moved to the cabinets to get out plates and cups for Remus and ourselves, while Harry went and got ready to make something for lunch.

"I agree. This is so much better than having to keep the Manor and Castle hidden from people. You know, I love magic and all, but I'm glad we had this place refitted with electricity," Harry said.

"I agree. I'm really glad that the Americans figured out a way to transform the ambient magic into electricity. It's a shame that most of Wizarding Britain is ruled by pure blood supremacists. There are so many things that could be improved if we looked at the Muggle side of things. Remind me to not let dad near any outlets if we bring him here," I said.

Harry nodded. "He'd probably electrocute himself trying to figure out how to plug something in. Maybe Fred and George could find a way to incorporate some Muggle things into pranks and maybe even look at some things like Muggle grenades to set off Stunners or something."

"That's a two-way street, though. Some things these Muggles come up with are just crazy. Bombs and the like could also be really bad. DEs are bad enough with the AK, but a weapon of mass destruction..." I trailed off, shuddering.

"I agree. This'll take a while. Let's go to the sitting room. Remus shouldn't be here for another half-hour, and I'll know when he arrives. We can do some more planning or maybe some more exercising if you want," he suggested.

"Sure thing, love. I'm excited to meet these elementalists today. That Time-Turner will be useful for if we need to get some more planning done. From what Rockgrinder has said, or implied rather, we could possibly go back whole days. That would be great for training," I said.

"Yeah, we can go a normal day, sleep, and when we wake up, go back to the previous morning to spend the day training. That can give us two full months of training, and two full months of break. Then it'll be easier than what went on with Hermione. She only went back hours at a time."

"Yeah, that nearly drove her mad. It'll be great to get to spend whole days with you at a time, that way we won't have to keep sneaking around. When I eventually get to go to the Burrow, we'll have more time together, but not much, there'll still be my brothers to deal with," I remind him.

He groaned, "don't remind me. I'm not looking forward to their reactions. They'll probably try to kill me."

"Now I don't think they'd go so far as to actually kill you. Threaten to harm you, maybe. Cause you temporary harm, perhaps. Threaten to kill you, possibly. Actually kill you? Nah, Mum would have a conniption if they did. Besides, if Tom can't kill you, they certainly can't. If they do try to kill you though, I'll just tell them that by killing you, they kill me too."

"I knew there was a reason I loved you. Hey, it looks like Remus has arrived. He's outside looking around. He still sees it as the rundown old house where his friends were killed. I say we go let him in and give him a nice little surprise. What do you think?"

"I think that's a brilliant idea, love. What do you think of taking out the cloak and going up behind him, though?" I asked. Suddenly I showed him my entire plan through our mental connection.

"I think that it's a very Slytherin idea of you, Lady Potter. Shall we go through with it then? It's almost time for lunch, and we wouldn't want to leave him all alone in the heat outside on a nice day to be indoors like today, would we?" He was smirking now, I could tell. His amusement shone through his voice and I could feel it in his emotions.

"Let's go, love."

* * *

><p><em><strong>~Remus' POV~<strong>_

I apparated directly to the place right outside of the Potter Cottage that I knew to have been destroyed that night all of the years ago. I sighed and wondered why Harry wanted to meet me here and how he even knew where it was. I had known him a few years, and I still didn't understand him.

I sighed and resigned myself to having to wait for a while longer when he appeared out of nowhere, with Ginny Weasley right beside him, scaring me to death.

"Hi, Remus! Come on, it's almost lunch time. The food'll be ready any minute now. We'll explain everything you need to know inside. It'll do no good to be overheard out here. Go on inside, we're right behind you," Harry said all very quickly and cheerily.

"Okay, Harry. What is this about? How is the house like this? Why am I here? Why are you here? How did you get here? How did you find this place?" I asked all at once as I walked into the entranceway of a fully restored Potter Cottage. Everything, down the light brown wood floors brought back memories of happier times. Harry and Ginny kept silent and walked straight through the entranceway and down the hallway to the left where the kitchen and attached dining room were.

I kept following, in awe of whatever this was that had managed to rebuild this totally destroyed place. The walls that used to be adorned with pictures and a deep mahogany color were now a deep green, slightly darker than the eyes of Lily and Harry. There were a few photos in the hall. Most were of James, Lily, Sirius, Harry, Ginny, the Weasleys, and myself. The hall now had electric lights made the place look very open.

After passing through the hall in a comfortable silence where I had the feeling Harry and Ginny were talking even though I couldn't hear them, we reached the kitchen. Harry and Ginny entered and Harry crossed the kitchen to the other side of the room on the right where the remodeled kitchen was, and Ginny went to the left to the dining area where there was a table that could seat all of the Weasleys with room to spare.

The kitchen's walls were now a burgundy color and there were more Muggle appliances in the room than before. The dining room was a crimson color that looked like a darker version of the Gryffindor color. The table had a few pieces of parchment that were covered in writing, and a parchment I recognised as the Marauders Map. There was a Muggle notebook and pens and pencils on the table as well as a quill and ink. Ginny went to the table and cleared it off, then put out three plates, cups, and sets of silverware.

"Now will you tell me what all of this is about?" I asked.

"After lunch," Harry said firmly, making me immediately back down. I had heard that tone from his father enough to know that if I wanted any answers then I'd have to be patient and do what they wanted me to.

"Okay." So we all sat down and I just then noticed that Harry and Ginny seemed closer than normal. I looked closer and saw that they had their chairs scooted closer than necessary at the large round table and were holding hands under the table. A light breeze was blowing from the open window behind them. With their similar appearances to James and Lily, the fact that they were clearly together, and where we were right now, I could almost believe that this was another dinner when I was at the Potter's house before Harry was born.

"Well Remus, what do you think of the remodel? It only took a week for the house-elves to get this all finished," Harry started the conversation after we'd all finished eating and retreated to the sitting room, which looked very similar to how it did before, still missing the pictures.

"I think that this is amazing. I never even realised how much I had missed this place until now. I never realised just how much this place felt like home until now. How did it happen?"

"Well, after the Department of Mysteries, I realised that there was no way that my friends would let me take Voldemort on alone..."

Over the next half hour, Harry and Ginny told me everything they had decided upon, everything that happened, and everything they had decided to do over the past two weeks since school was over.

"Wow, that's definitely some two weeks you've had there. I don't think that the first two weeks of summer have ever been as exciting as that."

"That's because you're not Harry Potter," Ginny said.

"Yep, anything that's strange can and will happen to me," Harry agreed.

"Now, will you tell Dumbledore about all of this? I'm not exactly on the best of terms with him at the moment. Besides, if he knew, he'd tell the Order and Mrs. Weasley would throw a fit over us even considering what we're doing. I'd like for you to help us to train the DA, you were the best Defence professor we've ever had. Will you help?" Harry asked.

"I won't tell Dumbledore, and I'll help you all train. For now, though, I'll start by taking you to Diagon Alley, alright?"

"Thanks Remus. We appreciate this. You really don't have to. We'll be fine if you don't want to help, but..."

"I'd love to help. Let's go. I'll apparate us to the Leaky Cauldron. It's probably best if I put glamours on you both so you aren't recognised..."

* * *

><p><em><strong>AN: <em><strong>Here's chapter two. I'm trying to post as many chapters of this as I can before I go to DC for the next week on a school field trip. I changed a few things about the elemental masters that Harry is going to meet. This chapter is a small part of Harry's POV that I didn't put at the end of the last chapter, and then Ginny's and Remus's. <strong>_Hope you enjoyed it. I'd like to thank everyone that has read, favorited, or followed this since I posted it. I'll post the next chapter either later tonight or tomorrow. The next chapter will be the meeting with the master elementals.**_


	3. Chapter 3: Meeting Elementalists

_**THE PRIDE**_

_**Chapter Three: Meeting Elementalists**_

-Regular Thought-  
>-"Speech"-<br>_-"Parseltongue"-_  
><em>-'Mind Speak'-<em>

* * *

><p><em><strong>~Ginny's POV~<strong>_

Remus apparated with us to Diagon Alley with the glamors on us. Remus told us he would wait in the Leaky Cauldron for us and to meet him when we were finished. As soon as we entered Gringotts, we cancelled the spells and went straight to the goblin with the shortest line and were escorted to a conference room where we were told that Rockgrinder would meet us in a few minutes because he was in a meeting with the elementalists.

Ten minutes later, Rockgrinder came in, followed by two witches and a wizard.

"Welcome back, Lord Potter. I presume that this is Lady Potter?"

"Yes. I am Lady Ginevra Potter. Who might these three behind you be?"

"Yes, these are Cecilia Maris, Marina Donsen, and Richard Starr."

"Hi, I'm Cecilia, I'm the fire elementalist. I'm from Alabama," said the cheerful blonde-haired witch with a southern American accent.

"I'm Marina, I'm the air elementalist. I was born in Versaille, but I live in Paris most of the time when I'm not busy with practicing my element. I spend time at my family estate in Versaille over the summers to practice," said the French witch with curly light brown hair.

"I am Richard, and I'm the earth elementalist. I live in Bulgaria," finished the older salt and pepper haired man.

"I'm Lord Harry Potter, I suppose. You probably already know who I am. Most everyone seems to," Harry sighed.

"I'm Ginny Weasley-Potter. Call me Ginevra and I hex you. Now, to the point of this meeting, will you be willing to teach Harry and I to control the elemental powers?"

"I can't really help much with your powers, but I can show you how to access and control them," Cecilia said.

"I would love to help you learn to control your powers, but where would we do this," Marina said.

"We could go to one of the Potter estates. The castle or manor might be best if we wish to practice on the grounds, but I think either the Glen or the Resort would be best for space," I said.

"I think it may be beneficial to have space for the element of air," Marina said.

"I agree about first learning for earth, but after they get the basics, it would be best to have the grounds," said Richard.

"Right, so after we get a good start on earth and air we can move to the Manor. You are all welcome to stay there for the summer if you wish," I offered.

"The elves would love to have someone to keep the house cleaned for," Harry agreed.

"I would like to stay if you are sure about this," Cecilia agreed.

"I'll stay," Marina said.

"I suppose it would be best if I was close by while I teach you," Richard finally said.

"Well since that is settled, Lord Potter, here you are: the Time-Turners, as promised. You will benefit the most by going back twenty-four hours every morning. Then you do a normal day, and then go to bed and when you wake up, go back and do the day before training. Then you have a day of normal, sleep, a day of training, sleep, and then repeat. It would be much easier than going back only a few hours like the ones the Ministry have available for use," Rockgrinder said and gave Ginny and I one.

"Thank you Master Rockgrinder. We will meet with you again soon," Harry promised.

"Yes, now would the three of you like to meet with us tomorrow, or go to the estate with us now?"

"I think that we could go now if you think it would be easiest. I will apparate to my home in the morning and grab what I need," Cecilia said.

"Oh it wouldn't be a bother to have one of the elves go with you. There are plenty at the estate that would like some actual work for once. The ones at the Manor have had nothing to do at all since the Manor was locked after my grandparents' deaths my father's seventh year of Hogwarts. After their deaths, my father moved out of there and into another of my estates, the Marauders Resort."

"James Potter bought that estate with the help of three friends, the woman that eventually became his wife, and her four friends. I believe that they were Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew, Marlene McKinnon, Mary MacDonald, Hestia Jones, and Alice Prewett, who later married Frank Longbottom. It is counted as a Potter estate because the majority of the money used to buy it came from the Potter family vault. There was money from a vault left to Sirius Black by his Uncle Alphard, though," Rockgrinder said.

"I thought that Sirius Black was a criminal?" Cecilia questioned.

"He was innocent of what he was accused of. It was their other friend, Peter Pettigrew that was the one that actually did those crimes. He framed Sirius and faked his death. Pettigrew was the one responsible for betraying my parents to Voldemort, the real DE, and the real one to kill those Muggles. He is still alive today, only because I convinced Sirius and Remus not to kill him when we first met him so that Sirius could be freed. That backfired and he escaped, which led to him helping Voldemort to return. He's the one that killed Cedric Diggory, the other Hogwarts champion in the Tri-Wizard Tournament," Harry explained. "He was my godfather and he died fighting DEs back in May."

"Oh, I'm so sorry! Was he ever cleared?" Marina exclaimed.

"No, he is still considered a criminal because Fudge refused to believe us when we told him the truth and Sirius was on the run for the two years after his escape. He escaped when he found out that Pettigrew was alive and where he was. Then he came to Hogwarts at the end of that year and told me the truth, and I had been in contact with him since then after that."

"He was at Hogwarts for the Third Task of the Tournament. We knew that something was up and someone was out to get me or I wouldn't have been entered in the tournament. After the Task, when I was back at Hogwarts, we learned that Barty Crouch Jr. had trapped Alastor Moody in his trunk and had been using Polyjuice Potion to act as him all year and he was the one responsible for it. Then we tried to tell all of this to Fudge, but instead of listening, he denied it and Crouch Jr. ended up getting the Dementors Kiss. Then Fudge started to try to slander mine and Dumbledore's names over the summer because he refused to believe that Voldemort was back. We are pretty sure that he was being payed off by Lucius Malfoy and a few other DEs," Harry finished explaining about his third and fourth years at Hogwarts.

"What exactly happened last year, though? There are all kinds of crazy rumors and stories involving Voldemort's return and what happened in the Ministry and at Hogwarts," Richard said.

"I'll explain this one. See, over the summer, Harry stays with his Muggle relatives of his mother. About halfway through last summer, he was attacked by two Dementors. They almost kissed both him and his cousin, so he had to use the Patronus charm to fend them off. In the summer before his second year, there was a house-elf named Dobby that came and tried to stop him going to Hogwarts for the year because of the stuff that was going to happen that year, and he decided that in order to keep Harry from going back, he would use magic, which got Harry a warning.

"Since Fudge already didn't like Harry, he was looking for any reason to get him in trouble and said that he would be expelled and have his wand snapped. Dumbledore stepped in, and he ended up with a hearing that was supposed to be with Madame Bones, the Head of the DMLE, but it was rescheduled to a few hours earlier and Courtroom Ten. Then he was tried by the full Wizengamot and ended up cleared of all charges.

"After that, Fudge was really upset and so appointed Dolores Umbridge as Defence professor, and they made us only read this ridiculous book, which was about as useful for Defence as a fake wand, all about theory. She forbid us from using any magic in her classes, and she might as well have just snapped our wands for as much good as her classes did. So our friend Hermione and my brother Ron convinced Harry to teach us, and several other students, the practical side of Defence himself since he is the best in our years.

"We've never had the best professors, their first year was a stuttering idiot who turned out to have Voldemort possessing him and stuck on the back of his head. Harry's second, my first, there was a bumbling idiot that hadn't actually done any of the things he said he had and was only good at memory charms-which totally backfired on him and left him with no memory when he tried to cast it at Harry with a broken wand. The next year was the best professor we've had yet, even though he is a werewolf, which never bothered any of his students except the Slytherins when we found out. The year of the Tournament, as Harry already said, was supposed to be Alastor Moody, but was really a Polyjuiced DE. Then last year was the Ministry Toad," I explained.

"Then about halfway through second term, Umbridge got information about the group we had formed. We had called ourselves the DA, Dumbledore's Army, because that was what the Ministry feared most: Dumbledore working against them, which would turn the rest of the Wizarding World, leading to the reason for the discrediting Dumbledore and myself. She came in one of our meetings and everyone but myself had gotten away. She dragged me up to the Headmasters' office, where the Minister and a few Aurors were waiting. Dumbledore ended up taking the credit for it all so I wouldn't get in trouble-which didn't really help because they already knew I was the one on charge-and he left the school, leaving Umbridge completely in charge.

"At the end of the year, during our History of Magic O.W.L. I fell asleep and, due to a connection I have with Voldemort through my scar from when the AK rebounded and the fact that he used my blood in the ceremony to give him a new body, I was shown a vision of my godfather being tortured in the Department of Mysteries. I tried everything I could to check to make sure that he was there and when everything pointed to yes, Ron Hermione, Ginny, and I, along with Neville Longbottom and Luna Lovegood, we went to the Ministry, where we duelled with several DEs and Bellatrix Lestrange murdered my godfather."

"Oh, I am so sorry. It must have been awful for you," Cecilia said sympathetically.

"It was, we really must be going though. We were apparated here by Remus from Potter Cottage. Unless you've already seen it past the charm, it appears to everyone as the rundown and caved-in house it was after the Halloween when my parents were killed, but we have had it restored. Most of it was unable to be saved. A few pictures and some furniture, but for the most part, it was salvageable."

"Really?" Marina asked.

"Yes, for the Manor's elves, they found the job very simple and were able to almost completely restore it. What couldn't be saved was put into a secret room in the basement that could be used as a vault for heirlooms until it can be gone through. The roof had to be completely rebuilt, and the upstairs was almost completely remodeled. We've spent a lot of time there the past week since it was restored. We decorated and re-did the kitchen," I explained.

"It's almost like before. It amazed Remus when we showed him today. That's where we'll go now."

"Okay, I can get to Godric's Hollow Cemetery. I have family there," Marina said.

"I can go with Marina, we're quite good friends, she taught me to control my powers," Cecilia said.

"I will be able to get there. I am familiar with the place," Richard said.

"Excellent. We will meet you at the cemetery in twenty minutes and take you to the cottage," I said.

* * *

><p><em><strong>AN: As promised, here's chapter three tonight. I have all weekend to write and I have plenty of ideas for this story. I hope to have Harry and Ginny back at Hogwarts before I go to Washington DC. After this chapter, there is a time-skip of two weeks in their training. I'm working on chapter four right now. I don't know if I'll have it up tonight or not. This is entirely Ginny's POV. Sorry if the conversation in Gringotts is confusing, it made sense to me. Also, I don't mean to make Harry or Ginny seem as if all-powerful. I have a plan for all of the powers they have. Note that the chapters will vary in length and it will get longer at Hogwarts and later in the story.<strong>_


	4. Chapter 4: Training In Healing

_**THE PRIDE**_

_**Chapter Four: Training In Healing**_

-Regular Thought-  
>-"Speech"-<br>_-"Parseltongue"-_  
><em>-'Mind Speak'-<em>

* * *

><p><em><strong>~Harry's POV~<strong>_

Two weeks after the second meeting at Gringotts, Ginny and I had a solid base in both of the elemental powers and had contacted Tonks for help with the partial-Metamorph ability. We learned that Ginny was able to use my abilities and I was able to use hers. We also learned that she is an empath, so she can sense and control emotions.

We had learned a lot about our trainers. Cecilia was a healer at the American Wizarding Hospital in New York. The entrance to the American version of Diagon Alley is in New York and another Alley is in Los Angeles. There are several small wizarding communities with at least one small area in each state. She was twenty-nine and still had not married yet.

Marina was a Potions Mistress and worked for a company called GT, Greater Things, where she helped create new potions and improve existing ones. She was thirty-five and married to Steven Donsen. They had a daughter named Elizabeth and a son named Jace. Elizabeth started Beauxbatons last year.

Richard was fifty-four and was a Herbologist. He married his wife, Daphne, almost twenty-one years ago and they have four children: Andi, Lucy, Kaelin, and Robert. Robert was nineteen and played Quidditch for a lesser known Bulgarian team. Kaelin was sixteen and would graduate Saga Witches Academy next year, where she planned to become a Healer. Andi and Lucy were both in fourth year at Saga due to Andi having been born in September and Lucy in the next August.

Currently we were training with Cecilia to control our powers. She was teaching us to meditate and clear our minds much better than Snape did last year. She was also a Level Three Master Occlumens, and was teaching us to master that. Richard spent some time of our lessons with him teaching us to master Legilimency. Marina was fairly decent with Occlumency, and, while she was no master, it at least took some effort to break past her shields. Marina was also a Level Five Potions Mistress and helped teach us some things that Snape hadn't.

On Mondays, we practiced control, Healing, and Occlumency with Cecilia. Tuesdays and Thursdays were air and potions with Marina. Wednesday and Friday was earth and Legilimency with Richard. On Saturdays, we spent the morning with Tonks working on Metamorphing, and the afternoon with Remus reviewing what we had learned in school so far, except potions. Sundays were days for a break and for us to train physically and the occasional duel with one of our five teachers.

It was on Monday while practicing Healing the second time that Ginny had an idea about what we could do with the DA.

"Cecilia, do you think that you could teach a group of maybe thirty eleven to thirteen year olds about Healing?"

"I suppose I could if they were willing to learn and work really hard at it. It would be harder for them to learn since they didn't have as much experience with magic as you do."

"Right. Would you be willing, though?" I ask.

"I suppose so. Why?"

"Well, remember what we said about the DA? We're going to expand and make an actual army."

"That is an interesting idea, but how will you pull it off?"

"That's what we're working out right now," Ginny said.

"That's what you work on in those Muggle notebooks, isn't it?" Cecilia asked.

"Yes," I said.

"We're working out how to get some things done. We almost have a complete plan," Ginny says.

"You have really worked hard at this, haven't you?"

"Yes, we don't want anyone to be hurt or killed because we aren't prepared to fight and defend ourselves from DEs. That's the reason we are doing this. We want to learn all we can and teach it to the others. We are going to use everything we can to help take Voldemort down," I say.

"You really are a very remarkable person, Harry Potter. Most people your age would shrink away from a fight and responsibilities like this, but from what you've told us about yourself, you go straight to it so no one else has to," Cecilia said.

"That's just Harry. He's too noble for his own good. It'll get him killed one of these days, but I doubt it'll be before Voldemort is gone," Ginny teased me.

"That's not true! Okay maybe it is..." I said.

"See, what did I tell you Celi? He'll end up getting himself killed."

_"Traitor,_" I hissed in Parseltongue.

_"I'm just telling it like it is,_" she replied and gave and innocent look and shrug that was not that much better than Fred and George's.

_"Yeah, yeah. We'll talk later,_" I promised.

"Now, can I get back to teaching the two of you Healing? Mr. Longbottom is coming in an hour, just like you asked him to. You'll need time to explain everything to him," Cecilia interrupted, not even bothered by the hissing we had been doing by communication in Parseltongue.

* * *

><p><em><strong>AN: Here I am! Back from DC! It was amazing! I have to tell you all something amazing! I saw the actual robes that Daniel Radcliffe wore in the first movie! I have a picture! Now, here's the next chapter, it's a two-week time-skip to a Healing lesson. If you want to get technical, it's been four weeks for Harry and Ginny. It ends a little roughly, but the next chapter is very informational and this one is a bit of a filler with some plans for the DA brought to light. Next chapter may include some flashbacks again. Sorry about how short this one is, I went to the eye doctor today and we determined that I need glasses for long distance, and they put that stuff in my eyes, so I can barely stand to look at the computer, but I wanted to get this up for you guys.<strong>_


	5. Chapter 5: Meeting the Longbottoms

_**THE PRIDE**_

_**Chapter Five: Meeting the Longbottoms**_

-Regular Thought-  
>-"Speech"-<br>_-"Parseltongue"-_  
><em>-'Mind Speak'-<em>

* * *

><p><strong><em>~Harry's POV~<em>**

The Americans, French, Bulgarians, Russians, Brazilians, Spanish, and Germans-being the other main countries with large magical communities-weren't as prejudiced as the British. They had the occasional Dark Lord pop up, but they never had problems like ours. Their Ministries also weren't as corrupted as the British Ministry of Magic was.

The Magical British community had once been just families-or clans-that passed their learning of magic down from parent to child. Around 950 AD, there were sixteen very prominent families. Up until that time, there had been no real laws for the magical world. The sixteen prominent and powerful families were each Headed by a single person. Four of those families were Headed by Godric Gryffindor and Salazar Slytherin, each being patriarchal families, and Helga Hufflepuff and Rowena Ravenclaw, matriarchal families. The other sixteen families were Headed by Patrick Potter, Aries Black, Jack Longbottom, Emma Bones, Jacqueline Abbott, Catrina Vance, Lawrence Pride, Roderick Peterson, Celeste Brown, Rozlynn Rese, Bryanna Bolder, and Haiden Quinn. Six matriarchal lines, six patriarchal lines. Patriarchal: Potter, Black, Longbottom, Pride, Peterson, and Quinn. Matriarchal: Bones, Abbott, Vance, Brown, Rese, and Bolder.

In that time, there was no clear defining line of Dark or Light. Most families were in the Grey area. Gryffindors and Potters were more 'Dark,' than Slytherins and Blacks in that time. The four friends, Godric, Salazar, Rowena, and Helga (Godric and Helga being siblings and Rowena and Salazar married to them respectively), founded Hogwarts on one of the Slytherin family properties. Then there was a way for people to learn magics that wasn't taught or mastered by their families, but there was no government, or way to control the magical people.

The founding families were busy running and maintaining the school, and couldn't help run a government and entire world, so the other twelve families got together to form a council, each taking a position, and each having a counterpart of the opposite gender. Then one day they up and told the Wizarding World they were taking over and they would be in charge of wizards and witches. No one really objected, knowing it would be futile as those very families had once conquered all of what is now Eastern Magical Asia with their strength and power. So came the Council of Twelve, the foundation for the current Wizarding Government. WHen the Council needed a leader, they appointed Patrick Potter as the leader.

The Council of Twelve had six positions: Fighting, Farming, Learning, Teaching, Peace, and Law. Fighting Families were Potter and Rese. Farming Families were Longbottom and Bolder. Learning Families were Pride and Vance. Teaching Families were Peterson and Abbott. Peace Families were Quinn and Brown. Law Families were Black and Bones. Fighting was basically war and what became the DMLE, Aurors, and Hit-Wizards positions in today's Ministry. Farming was agriculture, and founded what became the Herbologists Association. Learning and Teaching were about the students of Hogwarts and the new smaller schools popping up, and training new teachers. Law was also part of what became the DMLE and that was part of the reason for the Department of Law and Regulations. Peace was just that, peacetime leaders, peace negotiators, and the ones that made sure that everything ran smoothly. The Council worked together to make laws and govern the new Wizarding World, and everything went smoothly and ran fine and everyone was happy for a long time, until the witch hunts, which set everyone on guard, and made them ostracize anything 'Dark,' which led to the first Dark Lord, Niall the Negligent, named for the fact that he failed to keep his guard up and was captured by a Potter.

By the mid 1400's, the Wizarding World was trying it's hardest to go into hiding so they would be able to survive the Witch Trials (which rarely caught anyone actually magical and mostly was non magicals that were killed). By mid 1500's, the Wizarding World was in hiding and it became harder for things to run smoothly. The newly underground magical world was falling into shambles. The Council found things much harder to control, and eventually, things got so out of control that the Council split. It was much a different reasoning than some would think and it didn't happen the way most books say.

What actually happened was that Aries and Patrick's descendants got into a normal fight like they do most days. It ended with Patrick's descendant being accused of the theft of one of Aries's descendant's son's swords. When the Council met again, Aries's descendant had found the sword and he apologized to Patrick's descendant, and Patrick's descendant accepted. However, Patrick and Aries both had very hotheaded and headstrong descendants, both of the sons refusing to acknowledge each other. Then Jack Longbottom's descendant joined Patrick's descendant, and Lawrence Pride's descendant joined Aries's descendant. Within the next month, the children of the Council's members had taken sides in the argument and things spiraled out of control. The children started fighting each other. The final grouping before the elders intervened was: Potter, Longbottom, Bolder, Quinn, and Rese versus Black, Pride, Peterson, and Brown. With Bones, Abbott, and Vance neutral.

This was the first divide of the council. The second was in the late 1700's when the United States was being formed, when part of the council wanted to spread to the Americas and the rest didn't want to leave their homelands. Patrick Potter's descendant, Alexander Potter, said that it would be best to see if the Muggle community there worked out first, but Aries's descendant, Zayn Black, said they should go with them anyways. The Council turned up much the same as it had with the argument about the sword. Of course, most of the Wizarding World thinks the split was because of conflicting views on 'Dark' vs. 'Light' magic. In actuality, much of the council was in the Grey area, while some may have been Darker than others, they never fought over that as much.

The split and break of the council happened in 1835, when Luke Potter and Adam Black refused to work with each other anymore. So the council was broken apart. The entire story and all Council proceedings were written in journals by the scribe, members of Laureli Legaspi's family since the beginning of the council when Laureli herself was the scribe for the Council.

Now each Council family still kept their special powers and abilities and the things that recognised them as council members (like the Potter hair, and the fact that most Potter men marry smart and fiery redheads, and I am a partial Seer and Metamorph). Charlus Potter and Reid Longbottom were both Partial-Seers (as per one of their families' gifts), and had a vision on the same night of a new council being formed, and soon.

While the Council was in charge, the Wizarding World had moved forward and progressed just like the Muggle World had, but when the Council split, it left them behind and stuck moving much slower than the rest of the world. This is part of the reason there are so many problems (problems also include: Dark Lords, idiotic Ministers, interference at Hogwarts, prejudice, and much more) in Wizarding Britain, it's still stuck in the time of the witch hunts, thinking themselves better and persecuting those they think are different or don't like.

Remus had explained all of that to us after I asked about the history of the families. Ginny had never heard of them either. He also explained a few of the things my father had told him about the Potter family.

When we checked the vaults, we found several older weapons, and when we brought Remus with us, he helped us to find a portrait of my parents and Sirius, a portrait of my grandparents that had been at Potter Cottage until my parents decided that we would be in hiding there so it was sent to the vault, a portrait of the three true Marauders (Peter was supposedly 'sick' and told them to have it painted without him) and my mum, a portrait of Sirius, and a portrait of my parents. The one of my parents and Sirius was put in Potter Cottage, and the one of my grandparents was also put back in Potter Cottage (as there was already one at Potter Manor and Castle). The one of the Marauders was put in the main hall of Potter Castle, and Sirius's individual, along with my parents are in the Manor.

We had gotten some input from the portraits of Mum, Dad, Sirius, Grandma Dorea, and Grandpa Charlus. I also found out a bit more about the Potter family. Like the fact that we are a Grey family, but everyone thinks that we are a Light family because we want it that way. We are also proficient in most types of magic-Light, Grey, and Dark-and have the strength to keep the Darker magics from driving us mad because we're all typically very magically powerful.

Our motto is _diligunt et semper primum familiae, alterum occidere inimicos, ut omnes sint nescis, custodiant excubias perpetuo,_ meaning 'love family first and always, kill enemies second, keep everyone unaware, keep constant watch.' Most people however, think that our motto is _amo familia semper, retinent adsidua,_ meaning 'love family always, keep constant watch.' We are also the single richest family in Wizarding Britain, but the only ones that know the true amount of our wealth is the goblin in charge of our vaults and members of our family. Potters are the ultimate Slytherins, and the only thing keeping us out of Slytherin is the fact that we own at least half of Hogwarts. Now I own the whole thing through my mother's side.

It was almost my sixteenth birthday, when I would be able to access more of my powers, the wordless magic, Mage Sense, Mage Sight, and Partial-Metamorphing. Dad and Grandpa Charlus' portraits will help as much as they can, with them having had these powers as well. Tonks will work with the Metamorphing, and Remus can help with the wordless magic. We're not quite sure, but we think Ginny will have the powers available to her now too, but we aren't sure how it'll work with her being almost a year younger than me with our Bond and still not of age for Lords and Ladies.

Grandpa Charlus and Dad also explained about how my name works, as apparently Harold James Potter isn't my entire name. Potters are named their first name (usually long, so they have a nickname), the father's name, their grandfather's name, their mother's maiden name, and any lordship's for major houses come after the name Potter. The Potters had been half-blood for centuries, but people always seem to think they were pure-bloods.

So my grandfather's formal name was Charlus Cameron Colton Walsh Potter-Gryffindor-Ravenclaw-Peverell-Montain, and everyday his name was Charlus Cameron Potter. My father's name was Jameson Charlus Cameron Black Potter-Gryffindor-Ravenclaw-Peverell-Montain formally, and everyday was James Charlus Cameron Potter (because he didn't want to get rid of the Cameron). Formally my name is Harold Jameson Charlus Evans Potter-Black-Gryffindor-Ravenclaw-Slytherin-Hufflepuff-Peverell-Montain-Konnors-Jaques. My everyday name is Harry James Potter.

Potter Castle was sealed in 1976, when my father sealed it after Grandpa Charlus and Grandma Dorea's deaths and he moved into Potter Cottage. However, he returned a few years later and took the portrait of my grandparents to the cottage and took a few other things and let my mum see where he had grown up, then after the final time they visited (just after my birth), the castle was sealed again. By October 1980, the castle had been sealed for a year, and my parents and I were in hiding. After their deaths, everything in the castle, excepting the elves who still cleaned and stayed in the castle, was frozen, awaiting the new Lord coming of age.

When I visited the castle the first time since it was sealed, the castle awoke again and the magic swirled in the air, showing that the wards were being re-established and connecting to me. I visited again a week later with Ginny, and the castle had the same reaction. Now, three weeks after first visiting the castle, two weeks after starting training with the masters, and one week after our meeting with Neville, Ginny, Neville, Remus, Tonks, Cecilia, Marina, Richard, and I were standing on the grounds after Portkeying to the property. This was the first time in over a decade since Remus had been there, and the first time for everyone else but Ginny and I.

* * *

><p><em><strong>(One Week Earlier)<strong>_

We practiced Healing until Neville arrived outside with his grandmother. Then we welcomed them in and Augusta, noticed that we had the rings.

"Lord Potter, it is an honor to finally see you take up your mantle as Head of House. I thank you for welcoming us into your humble home," Augusta said.

"Welcome Madame Longbottom. Hello Neville," I said.

"Lord Potter. A pleasure to see you outside of school. If you don't mind my asking, how we are here in Potter Cottage, as it was destroyed many years ago?" Neville asked.

"Well, that is quite a story and part of what I wished to speak with you about today. You see, almost a month ago I went to Gringotts on my own, and I asked if I had been left anything other than my Trust Vault from my parents. I was then taken to Master Rockgrinder's office, where I did the Inheritance Test and the Abilities Test. While there, I learned that I have many different titles, including a few that have seats in the Wizengamot that have been empty for far too long. I also learned that I had a Soul-Bond with Ginny here, and as such when we connected, we became emancipated, married in the eyes of the Ministry, considered adults, and the titles of Lord and Lady Potter were filled again.

"In the next two weeks, we Bonded and then started to meet every day, along with our mental conversations the rest of the time. We also checked on all of our estates during that time and the elves decided that they would rebuild this house and put a ward up over it to make people think it's still a wreck. After those two weeks were up, we had another meeting at Gringotts with the three elemental masters existing today. They were brought in to help us master our powers, as we are both air and earth elementalists. They are Cecilia Maris, Marina Donsen, and Richard Starr. In that meeting, we were also given a Time-Turner from Rockgrinder, and we have lived every day twice since then. It has been a week since our meeting with the goblins to everyone else, but to us, it has been two weeks.

"Cecilia, Marina, and Richard have been staying either here or at the Castle with us and teach us to master our powers. We are also going into some of the things we have learned at Hogwarts in the past years. We also have Remus Lupin and Nymphadora Tonks here to help teach us. They are all at the Castle today. We are also trying to learn some of the things that my family has known and passed down over the generations through the portraits we found in the family vaults," I explained.

"That is quite the story. I must ask, though. Why are you doing all of this?" Neville asked, much more confident when talking to us after the battle back in June.

"Well, it's simple really. We want to teach the DA more than we did before. We're going to expand. Harry realised back in June that if Voldemort has returned to the public eye, he'll be able to actually launch full-scale attacks against the Wizarding World. The adults tell us that we should leave it to them and try to be children as long a we can. That doesn't work very well. Harry's never had a real childhood. I haven't been a child since my first year of Hogwarts. Ron and Hermione always follow Harry to defeat whatever hair-brained scheme Voldy's DE's have come up with for the year. Neville and Luna followed the four of us to the Ministry back in June. Things are getting worse, and we're going to need to be prepared. Voldy thinks we're going to be untrained and unready to fight. We're going to change that. We'll be ready, and take the fight to him. Will you help?"

"I would love to help you with your little army. However, I only have the temporary position as Regent Lady Longbottom. I believe that it is time for Lord Longbottom to join his fellow Lord Potter. Have you learned about the Council of Twelve yet?" Augusta said, while Neville sat flabberghasted over what his grandmother had just said.

"Yes actually, if you will give me a moment I would like to bring a portrait or two in here to join this conversation. I will be right back," I said, getting up and leaving Ginny with the determined Augusta and the still-silent Neville.

As I walked down the hallway, I heard-through Ginny-Neville asking his grandmother if she was serious about him becoming Lord Longbottom and wasn't joking. She replied by asking if she would joke about something like that.

_'Well, I think step one to our evil plan to bring the confident Neville out is almost complete. I didn't even expect her to let him become Lord Longbottom,'_ Ginny told me.

_'Neither did I. I think that if anything will make him more confident, it will be letting him take the position. It will be a connection to his father, and it will give him the authority. Now, we just need to talk to Amelia Bones, Hannah Abbott's mother, and Maggie Rese,'_ I replied.

_'Speaking of Maggie, I'm sending the letter after this meeting. You and Neville can write Hannah and Susan, then you can ask them to meet here just like we did with Neville. I think it's really funny that all of the Council's descendents are in the same few years of Hogwarts,'_ Ginny said.

_'That is kind of funny, I have to admit. Although Black and Vance have no descendent with their name or title, as Emmaline Vance was killed the other day and she had no children and the rest of her line died out,'_ I said.

_'Yeah, that's definitely sad. Maybe the Council is going to reform with new members taking their place soon. Charlus and James both said that it was very close to coming back. Then the other night you had that dream-vision of the Council's meeting place. I think the time is almost near,'_ Ginny told me.

By this time, I had reached where the portraits of my parents and grandparents stay when we aren't speaking with them. I quickly explained the entire situation to them and they came with me to the kitchen, and we quickly set the portraits where they could both be seen and see us. Augusta greeted my grandparents, Mum, Dad, and Sirius, as did Neville.

"So, what were you saying about the Council, Madame Longbottom?"

"I was asking if you knew that all but two of the Council families have an heir in your generation in close age for the first time since the split of the Council. It is an interesting time. The closest before this was in your parents generation when there were three different heirs missing. Now it is Black and Vance. The Black family has no direct heir excepting you, am I correct?"

"You are correct, Madame Longbottom. After Harry here, the closest heir is Draco Malfoy, but he has already taken the title of Lord Black," Sirius said.

"Augusta, I would like to ask, if you knew of the vision that has recurred to the past three Lord Potters, and I believe Lord Longbottom as well, of the Council reconvening? I believe that time is near," Grandpa Charlus said.

"I was there when my son first saw the vision of the Meeting Place. I have known for some time about the possibility of it being this generation. Since Neville was three, I have taught him everything he will need to know as Lord Longbottom, as is customary to teach the heir of Most Ancient and Most Noble Families. I, too, believe that time is near."

"If we were to try to reconvene the Council, will House Longbottom give its support?" I asked.

This time Neville answered with surprising confidence. "House Longbottom will support House Potter as it has for centuries before us."

"Excellent, because we are going to send summons to Maggie Rese and Jonas Quinn to meet us here and we would like if you could ask Susan Bones, Hannah Abbott, and Alison Bolder. We have to have support of over half of the original Council, and it will be best if we just ask those we trust first. We will, of course, have to convince the current Heads of those families to let the heirs take their places on the Council, but it shouldn't be that hard. Amelia Bones is very understanding, the Abbotts I don't know, but Ginny somewhat knows Margaret Rese, Chase Quinn, and Abigail Bolder through her dad."

Dad's portrait cut in, "Since the Black line is… under new management, you can say, and Emmeline Vance has died without an heir, there are two lines that will not be a part of the new Council. You will have to replace them, and I propose the Greengrass and Zabini families take their place, as that will gain support of the 'pure-bloods' and they are known to be fair and neutral families."

"That's a wonderful idea. We will go to Gringotts so Neville can take up his title, and then we will write to them when we get back to the Manor. What else do you need help with? I'm assuming that you wanted more than what we've talked about today yet."

"Yes, actually. I wanted to know what exactly was done to try to treat Frank and Alice Longbottom. We think we might have something that can help them out of the states that they are now in, then we would have to fake their deaths and put them in hiding, of course, but they would have to be so we have a secret weapon against Voldy."

"Well, they tried what they normally do for people who are victims of the Cruciatus. Then they tried many different possible cures, but nothing worked. What do you propose?" Augusta answered.

"Well, we wondered if anyone had ever tried using Legilimency to assess their mental states. There is the possibility that they are still in there, just hidden behind deep mental shields that they haven't pulled out from. We thought about this when we started learning Healing from Cecilia. She's a Mental Healer at American Wizarding Hospital in New York, so she's been teaching us Healing but the focus has been on the mind. She also helped us to find a book on Parselmagic Healing and there may be a way to help them with that. We think that if we tried, we might be able to help them. It hasn't been tested, and the only way to test the theory is to try in on Frank and Alice. What do you think, Augusta?"

"I think that if you have an idea, then you should try it. We can go to St. Mungo's later this week, as Neville and I already planned to visit them this week. We are going on Friday, do you wish to be disguised or hidden?"

"Actually, we have that covered. Watch," I said. Then, I took a moment to concentrate on the control of my powers Cecilia, Marina, and Richard has taught me, and the information that Tonks taught me as well. I concentrated for a few seconds and my hair grew out, turning red, and my eyes turned a bright blue, much like Dumbledore's. I looked over at Neville and he seemed shocked, but Augusta seemed to have expected it.

When she saw my curious look, she answered, "Harry, I have known four generations of Potters, including yourself, Did you think I would not have seen your gifts before? In actuality, I think I am one of the few people still alive to know more than the few main talents of the Potters. I daresay that Charlus and Dorea forgot to mention that Minerva and I were both very good friends with Dorea? Of course, we never had the chance to get to know Dorea well until after she and Charlus got together because she was a Ravenclaw from House Black and I was a Gryffindor from House Croaker (not a major house, but still important enough to warrant a seat on the Wizengamot). After she got together with Charlus, who we had been friends with for years, we became the very best of friends. After she married Charlus and I married Rufus, we all grew slightly apart, we still were friends of course, but we weren't as close as we had been. Charlus's parents died two summers after we graduated, so they took up the positions as Lord and Lady Potter. Dorea's mother, Cassiopeia, had a brother named Pollux, whose son, Orion, never did get the title of Lord Black, old Arcturus didn't die until after Orion did. Since Arcturus had no problems with the Potters, their marriage was allowed, and Dorea wasn't disowned. If you would like, I can help you prepare for what you will need to do on the Council and Wizengamot if the Council leaves it."

"Of course. I'd also love to hear if you have any stories about my parents or grandparents."

"It's no problem. If you want we can get started on Friday after we visit Alice and Frank," Augusta offered.

"Oh, could we do it on Saturday afternoon? We have lessons Monday thru Friday working on our powers, and Saturday mornings we work with Remus. Most Saturday afternoons, we work with Tonks usually, but we're letting Remus and Tonks go out this Saturday. Sunday we usually spend time on planning and individual studies, but we can clear time then too," Ginny said.

"Of course, you might want to have Neville join us in training every day. He can do the same schedule as us with the Time-Turner and then he still gets his summer and time with his plants and he gets to train with us. Then he can get some practice outside of school outside of the wards if he takes his Family Signet Ring, because as Head of House, he's considered an emancipated adult. Ginny and I are considered married adults due to our bonding," I explained.

"Okay. I'd like to train with you. About the DA… How are we going to do that this year? If we expand, will we still use the Room of Requirement?" Neville asked.

"Actually, that's something we're thinking about. We may want to use the Chamber of Secrets if we can clean it out and go through it, because there were a lot of tunnels in there. When we get back to school, we'll call a meeting the first Saturday after classes start. There we'll give out new communicators."

"Okay. It sounds like you have a lot planned," Neville said.

"Yeah, but we'd like to ask if you could help us with ideas on who to recruit. It's a little hard."

"I have plenty of ideas for people out of Gryffindor. Hannah Abbott and Susan Bones are good people to talk to for recruitment. Do we have any more to discuss today, or can we go over the rest on Saturday and Sunday?"

"We can finish our discussion later. You can go ahead and go to Gringotts now, and we'll talk later," Ginny offered.

"Okay, bye Ginny. Bye Harry. See you later," Neville said.

"Goodbye. I will be back Saturday at 1:00 for our next meeting. I will contact the others before then," Augusta said.

"Bye. See you both Saturday," Ginny and I both said.

Then Neville and Augusta both left and apparated, presumably to Diagon Alley.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Sorry this chapter took so long. I'm working on the next one now, which will be a trip to Diagon Alley, our first look at Frank and Alice, Harry's birthday, and the Weasley's reaction to Harry and Ginny as a couple.<strong>


	6. Chapter 6: Meeting Frank and Alice

_**THE PRIDE**_

_**Chapter Six: Meeting Frank and Alice**_

-Regular Thought-  
>-"Speech"-<br>_-"Parseltongue"-_  
><em>-'Mind Speak'-<em>

* * *

><p><em><strong>~Ginny's POV~<strong>_

It was the middle of July before we had a chance to go shopping in Diagon Alley. By now we had learned much in our time studying with the Masters (as we've taken to calling Cecilia, Marina, and Richard), Remus, and Tonks (we got the latter two together about a day into training, though they are keeping it secret and acting like he is still oblivious for the Order).

We decided to go with Neville and Augusta and use our Metamorphing talent to disguise ourselves. Remus and Tonks were going to be helping to find a few things for the Cottage, and act as our escorts.

Cecilia was working on Frank and Alice (our plan worked, they had been staying in the Cottage's spare bedroom while Cecilia, Harry, and I worked to get them back to full health). Marina was working on her potions, and Richard was staying with his family. When they weren't working with us, Marina and Richard were staying back at their homes, and Cecilia stayed all week long.

The first place we went was Ollivanders.

"Ah, Lord and Lady Potter, what have you come for today?" Mr. Ollivander asked.

"How did you… oh nevermind, it doesn't matter as long as no one else knows. Well, we came to see if you could make custom wands for us and several others," I said.

"Of course I can make custom wands Mrs. Potter. If you will come with me to the back of the store, I will show you the materials and you can decide which are more attuned to your magics. Then if you will come over here, I would like you to do the same with the core items. Thank you, thank you. For these three custom wands, if you could come back in three hours, I'll have them done and you can get them. I'd also like to recommend you go to the shop called Dueler's Dealings, just close to the edge of Knockturn Alley, and get wand holsters for yourself," Ollivander said.

"Thank you, sir. We'll be back in three hours," Harry said.

"Of course. Goodbye Madam Longbottom, Lord Longbottom, Lord Potter, Lady Potter. I shall get started on your wands straight away."

We departed from Ollivanders and went to the trunk shop, hoping to get trunks like the one Moody had (and ended up trapped in, but that's beside the point). We were able to get ten of the three compartment trunks with a training room and apartment as the second and third compartments, for the ten commanders we planned on having for the new DA. We also got three nine-compartment trunks for Harry, Neville, and I. We also got a new bag for each of our friends and ourselves (Hermione, Ron, and Luna). Then we went to the store Ollivander recommended. There, we got thirteen wand holsters for the commanders, and six for our friends and us for our wand we already had. We didn't really have much else that we needed to get, as the elves had taken it upon themselves to get clothes for Harry and I and Neville didn't need any, and we already had parchment and quills. We decided to get lunch at the Leaky Cauldron.

We all ate and since we still had another forty-five minutes until it was time to go back to Ollivander's, we decided to go to Quality Quidditch Supplies to get some new things for Harry and I. When we got there, Harry surprised me by blocking me from the mental connection and telling me he would meet me in fifteen minutes at the Chaser section. I didn't know what it was he was doing, but I had an idea: he had been hiding something from me all week, and the only thing he would say about it was that it was a surprise.

Another fifteen minutes later, I had a new set of chaser gear and Neville and I were talking about Gryffindor's chance in the Quidditch Cup this year, since all but one of the existing chasers were graduated, and we may have to end up changing beaters this year from the substitutes we had last year. There was really a very shocking difference in Neville over the past few weeks. He's become more confident, and he has more muscle than before. He started gaining confidence in the DA last year, then there was the Battle of the Department of Mysteries, then he became Lord Longbottom, and he started training with us.

'_Hey, Gin,'_ Harry mentally told me as he arrived to meet me.

'_Hi, Harry. Want to tell me what you were doing?'_ I asked.

'_Nope,'_ he replied.

'_Thought not,'_ I sighed.

'_You'll find out on your birthday, don't worry,'_ he assured me.

'_If you say so,'_ this time I sighed aloud, and Neville asked what was up.

"Oh, nothing. It's just that Harry won't tell me what he's up to. He says I'll find out on my birthday, so it must be to do with my present. Anyway, I've got to leave you two, I'm going to go see about your birthday present, love," I said, then kissed Harry on the cheek and went off to meet Tonks to get Harry's birthday present. I was going to get a picture frame that was two-sided so Harry could have a photo of the two of us with one of his parents that Remus gave me a copy of.

It took just ten minutes to get the frame, and another ten to get to that shop and back to where Tonks and I left Harry, Neville, Augusta, and Remus.

'_I'm back, love. I also got you a birthday present that I think you'll really love. Remus helped me with part of it,'_ I told him.

He turned around and took me in his arms in a hug, then gave me a brief kiss.

After that, we decided to head back to Ollivanders to pick up our wands. We arrived just as he was finishing up with our wands and bringing them out in the boxes he put them in. We already had the wand holsters on our arms.

He came up to us and handed them to us in turn.

"Ah there you are. I have three custom-made wands. One for Mrs. Potter: hawthorn, gryfin wing-feather, 12 ½ in, rather good for Charms and Offensive Magics. One for Mr. Potter: pine, basilisk scale, 11 ¾ in, quite good at Transfiguration, Defensive, and Offensive Magics. One for Mr. Longbottom: pine, hippogriff wing-feather, 11 ¼ in, excellent for Defensive, Transfiguration, and Herbology Magics. Those are all rather powerful wands, use them wisely."

"Thank you, Mr. Ollivander. We'll probably bring you lots more business soon. How many custom wands do you think you could make a day during the school year?"

"I can probably get eight done a day as it takes around an hour to make a single wand and I don't have that much business during the school year," he replied as we payed him the required amount.

"Great, because we need to get several people new wands. We'll start with a few groups of four while we get things set up. Then we'll bring the rest. We're going to need all the help we can get to fight Voldy and the Corpse Munchers," I said and Neville nearly choked at my new name for the DEs. "It's highly likely that we'll all be fighting soon enough. I trust you won't tell anyone about our visit today or any future visits?"

"Of course not, Mrs. Potter. I take customer confidentiality very seriously and I'm a passable Occlumens."

"Well goodbye Mr. Ollivander. We shall be back soon with more business for you," Harry said.

We left, having put our wands in the holsters, and headed to the steps of Gringotts to meet with the goblins about having the wards updated on several of our properties.

* * *

><p>An hour later, the goblins agreed to having a team come out to the smaller properties like the Marauder Resort, Potter Home, Potter Resort, and Peverall Home, to make them into safe-houses for the duration of the war. The team would be led by Bill, who we were going to bring into our group and hopefully he would be able to teach us some about warding. The others on the team would be hand-picked by Bill of the most trustworthy and skilled warders and curse-breakers Gringotts had in employment. Bill would be coming for a meeting via portkey to Potter Cottage (we seem to meet there a lot) on Sunday.<p>

So we headed back to the Cottage and had another planning session with Neville, Augusta, Remus, Tonks, and Cecilia. Now we have come up with the idea to have several groups with a commander and train them in specific jobs already, but today we determined what those jobs would be and how many groups, and commanders we would have along with a few other things.

There would be thirteen groups, including Harry, Neville, and I, each named after an animal, magical or not, and the commander would be addressed as Commander whichever-animal in battle. There would be one leader (the commander), two trained Healers (everyone will know basic Healing), two strategists (Ron's forte, he will be leading a separate group that is comprised of the strategists to look at DE tactics and find the best way to combat them), three shielders (rotating with the leader and strategists after a while to continually strengthen the shields), and the rest of the group will be the main fighters. The number of fighters will depend upon how many people join the new DA. The Leader and Strategists will double as fighters, and rotating shielders. We decided that Ginny, Luna, and Astoria Greengrass (if we could recruit her) were going to have teams of mainly fifth years since we would have the rest of the leaders mostly sixth years.

Based upon Muggle technology, and our newfound way of converting magic to electricity, Harry had a great idea for a way to communicate in battle: earpieces. So we bought a bunch of them in the Muggle world (don't ask how or where, it was a strange outing), and placed the necessary enchantments on them and now they will work from anywhere as long as the correct charms are cast before the battle. We charmed them to be Unbreakable and Imperturbable, and added a one-way silencing charm so that we would be the only ones able to hear it, as a way to keep outside forces from interfering with it. A way to communicate out of battle was inspired by Muggle pagers. So, much in the same fashion we got the earpieces, we got the pagers and charmed them to only send certain messages (which are codes that we devised to mean various different important things). Hermione would be proud of us. I'm just glad that we can use the Gemino spell on them to make more instead of having to do all that work over again. We have 104 of each so far, and we will need more for the fighters.

The first thing we would be teaching them would be Occlumency, in order for them to be able to keep what they learn and we do a secret on their own rather than just with secrecy charms. Then we will split in half and one group of the younger students learn Healing, and the older group would start learning defensive magics. Then we would switch and have the younger students learning to defend themselves and the older students learning to heal. After both groups had a good basis, we would divide into our groups and have each of them assigned a position. Then we would specifically train them for their position. The fighters would learn the more offensive spells, the shielders more defensive, and healers more healing-centered spells.

Some that required a more in-depth learning would be taken to Potter Manor and use the Time-Turner and spend more time daily learning their job. Many of the spells they would learn would be what Harry and I have been creating (with my limited knowledge of it from Arithmancy and Ancient Runes), and some of them will be very useful in battles or in regular life. We made things like a concentrated Aguamenti, a mass Stunner, a powerful fire spell, and a Dark Mark Ward (with a way to key specific people through it).

Our meeting with the other Council Families is going to be tomorrow at Potter Castle (we sent a portkey to the people attending the meeting) at 10:00. We'll start out explaining everything and try to convince them to go along with our plan, and then after that we'll break for lunch, giving them a time to think on our proposition and the house-elves something to do.

* * *

><p>Our meeting had gone successfully, and we would call the Council into session when we decide the time is right. The new Lords and Ladies (their parentsrelatives had agreed to let them be Heads of their families) would be joining us for training, along with Ron and Hermione, after Harry's birthday every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, unless we are learning something new from Cecilia, Marina, and Richard.

It was finally the time when Harry would get to come to the Burrow (officially), as a matter of fact, he would be brought by Professor Dumbledore tomorrow night, just in time for a birthday celebration. We don't plan to tell my entire family everything (excepting Ron, Hermione, and maybe the twins and Bill, since Bill already knows part), only the part about the Bond (so that it won't cause a panic attack with Mum when she finds us, more than likely, in the same room at night).

The Bond won't allow us to do much more than kiss until we are both 'Of Age,' to the Wizarding World (which will relieve many of Mum's fears, and give her an excuse to plan another wedding in two years) not that we would for a while yet, anyway. We just aren't quite ready for something like that.

We sleep together in order to help keep the nightmares away. I help keep the ones of Sirius and Cedric dying away for Harry, and he keeps away the ones about Riddle and the Department of Mysteries for me. In mine, Remus doesn't stop Harry and he follows Sirius through the Veil.

The rest of the day goes agonisingly slow for both Harry and I. Since it's his birthday tomorrow, we won't be training when we use the Time-Turner tomorrow morning, we're going to have a party for Harry and Neville. It turns out that Alice is Harry's godmother and she wants to have a party for them.

Remus and Tonks are still doing a great job at pretending to not be together. They came by the Burrow for an Order meeting the other day and stayed for dinner, and barely acknowledged each other except for that one time when Tonks tried flirting with him and I almost burst out laughing when he acted clueless. When we met up the next day, we all had a great laugh about it. They'll both be at the party tomorrow at the Burrow, which will be very exciting.

Harry and I keep up a steady conversation mentally every day. At night, we go to sleep and wake up early, then we turn back time to the day before and head to Godric's Hollow. Then we spend the day there or Potter Castle training and sleep at whichever place for the night. In the morning, we make sure we go to Potter Castle before our other selves are due to be at Potter Cottage and then go back. We've worked out our schedule, and while it's complicated, it works and we have yet to meet ourselves either in the morning or night. Plus we get a little extra sleeping time after we get there.

Remus says it's great that we take such precautions, but Tonks thinks it's a bit much. Neville meets us in the morning to go back for the day with us so he can either train or spend time with his parents. Tonks goes back with us if she has to work that day (which is almost every day) or has something to do for the Order (they haven't done much since they don't have to guard the prophecy anymore).

When it's finally eleven at night, Harry meets Dumbledore and they have a small discussion in which Harry is told that he inherited the Black estate from Sirius, and calls Kreacher (who has been told to pretend he doesn't want Harry as his master) and tells him to go back to Grimmauld Place. Then they go and meet Horace Slughorn, and he agrees to come back to teaching at Hogwarts. Then Harry is brought to the Burrow, and Dumbledore tells him about the lessons he will give him this year.

At this point, I was almost tempted to go out there and drag him in myself, but I knew we had to keep to our plans. Tonks and I were in the kitchen with Mum, and I nodded to her when Mum wasn't looking, telling her that Harry was outside.

Dumbledore was still talking. First, he asked Harry to keep his Invisibility Cloak on him, then he talked about Sirius, then told him he should tell Ron and Hermione about the prophecy, and then about O.W.L. results. Finally, _finally_, he was finished speaking and brought Harry to the house.

When he was allowed in (Mum _had_ to ask the security question, as per Order security rules), I ran to him and gave him a hug.

"HARRY!" I said.

"Hey, Gin," He said aloud. Then he switched to mentally, '_I only just saw you yesterday, and we've been talking all day.'_

'_Yeah, I know, but it's better to see you in person and it makes for a better show,'_ I replied.

'_Indeed it does,'_ he chuckled.

"I haven't talked to you in so long, it's been forever," I say aloud.

"It wasn't that long since I sent you a letter," he said.

"Well it's not the same as seeing you in person," I pout.

Mentally he's laughing at me. "Okay, I agree," he says.

I beam at him. '_Do you see their faces? Tonks is the only one that expected this and even she didn't know everything we'd do. Maybe we should kiss, just to throw them a bone, what do you think?'_

'_Sounds like a great plan,'_ then he leans down to give me a kiss, and I look through his eyes to where Mum is looking at us.

Just as we start to kiss, Tonks clears her throat.

"Well, Molly. I'd best go. I wouldn't want to impose on you any longer. I'll be back tomorrow."

"Oh, you don't have to leave. Stay for a bit more," Mum says.

"No, no. I must go, I'll come back tomorrow." As Tonks leaves, she winks toward us and I smile.

"Bye Tonks," Harry laughs.

"Bye," I say.

We give a wave each and she says, "See ya, you two. Be good."

"You know we will."

"Yeah right. Goodbye Professor, Molly." Then she leaves and heads to the Apparition point.

"I had best leave as well Molly. I only came to drop young Harry off. I may return at another time," Dumbledore says. Then he heads off in the direction Tonks did and Disapparates away. Mum rounds on us.

'_Cowards, they just don't want to face the wrath of Molly Weasley when she doesn't know one of her children is in a relationship and finds out later,' _I tell Harry.

'_Imagine what it'll be like when she find out that you're married and she didn't know. Imagine when we tell her I'll be sleeping in your bedroom,' _he replies.

'_Oh, dear Godric. It's starting.'_

"When did this happen, and why is it the first I'm hearing of it?" Mum asks, hand on her hips.

"Oh, it was… What, end of term, start of summer. Gin?" Harry says.

"First week of summer," I confirm.

'Well, why haven't I heard of it young lady?"

"We wanted it to be a surprise. We'll explain everything in the morning. It's really late, we're going to head up to bed. Night Mum," I say and escape upstairs.

Harry says, "Night Mrs. Weasley." Then he follows me upstairs and we part for the night. He, to Fred and George's room that Mum had them clean out for him, and I to my room.

* * *

><p>Once we're both asleep, we find ourselves in Potter Castle, or a representation of it anyway, just as we do most nights. In the Castle, we head up to the office on the eighth floor. The reason we appear in the Castle in our sleep is because of our Occlumency and our Bond together, giving us power over our own minds and so we are able to retreat into our minds, which we organised like the Castle with its protections.<p>

Any skilled Occlumens can retreat into their mind at night in their sleep, we're just together because our minds are connected via the bond. It was strange for the first week or so when we met at night, because that was the only time we saw each other in person, or as close to. Now we're used to it.

We spent some time tonight going over all of our plans, and making sure we had everything in place and ready for the beginning of school. After tomorrow, we're going to train every other day with the Time-Turner until we know as much as we can. During school, we'll turn back once a week.

Our contacts in Slytherin (meaning Daphne, Astoria, and Blaise, so far) have told us that there is a lot of pressure on the older Slytherins to choose a side in this war, and anyone without a side will have problems, just like those allying themselves with the Light.

After getting everything together, we went over to the Lord and Lady's rooms on our floor and fell asleep with his arm around me and me snuggled into his side. Regardless of meeting in our minds and only our bodies needing sleep, we let our minds rest by sleeping in our dream-world.

It's not a complicated idea if you don't think about it.

* * *

><p>In the morning, we get up at four AM and get ready, showering and changing into the clothes we're going to wear for the Turn-Back (as we call when we've gone back in time). Then we meet down in the sitting room. Today we're going to the Castle, so we head to Godric's Hollow and go back to sleep, not getting up again until six. At six, we call Tigerlily, one of my personal favorite house elves, and we get our breakfast. We then head outside and go to Potter Castle, where we meet the others.<p>

"Good morning Harry, Ginny. How are you?" Remus asked.

"Fine, Remus. How are you and Tonks?" I asked.

"We're fine. Oh, she said to ask you what you did last night," he replied.

'_Should we tell him everything or leave him guessing?'_ I asked.

'_Everything. It's much easier to just say the whole thing,'_ Harry replied.

'_If you say so.'_

"Well, when I came in, Ginny ran up and hugged me, we had a short conversation-both aloud and mentally-about how long it had been since we'd seen each other, and we kissed. Just as we were starting to kiss, Tonks decided to leave and Dumbledore left shortly after. They just didn't want to have to be there when Mrs. Weasley exploded. We managed to head her off, convincing her we'd explain in the morning. Then we went upstairs to bed, leaving her standing in the kitchen, stunned."

"Oh, that's good, but not as good as I thought it would be. You'll have to tell me how it goes when you meet with her family," Remus said.

"Yeah. So when's Neville arriving? I figured Frank and Alice would want him here early today for his sixteenth birthday party," I said.

"Oh he got here about fifteen minutes before you two. He's with Alice. She's doting again," Marina said as she came in.

"I think it's good for him. He only had his grandmother before now, and well she's Augusta. He didn't really have that many friends at Hogwarts until last year with the DA. He needs it," Harry said.

"You do too, dingbat. Go on, I know Ali's looking forward to doting on you, too," I say to him, smacking his head and shooing him off.

"Yes, ma'am. I'll probably be back whenever she'll let Neville and I go. See ya in a bit, love you," he says to me.

"Love you too, but I don't want you to come back down until you give Ali a proper chance to care for you," I say.

"Okay, I'll stay up there for a while. Will you be joining me at any point or are you staying down here? Ali loves you too," Harry says.

"I'll be up in about an hour. I want to talk to Remus about something first," I reply

"Okay. Bye," Harry says getting up, kissing the top of my head, and going to Frank and Alice's room.

"What'd you want to talk to me about?" Remus asked.

"I want you to teach us to be an Animagus," I say, making sure Harry wasn't listening in.

"Okay, I can do that. It probably won't take the two of you as long as it took James and Sirius. For them it took a long time because we had to spend a long time figuring out how the transformation worked, and when we were doing it, we didn't have an actual teacher since it was kind of illegal that we were doing it. We also spent such a long time on it because Pettigrew was not able to get it for a long time. It takes talent with wandless magic and transfiguration, which you're both very good at. Harry will have an easier time of it than you because it's also partly hereditary. If a parent or ancestor has done it, it will be infinitely easier as it's already in his blood. More so if it's a parent," he explained.

"I know we can both do it. Neville should do it too," I say.

"Okay, we'll start tomorrow. I can help all three of you."

"Great, I'm going up with Harry and Alice. We're having the party after lunch."

"Bye Ginny," Remus, Marina, and Cecilia-who had come down partway through our conversation-said.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: I know I said there would be more in this chapter, but it was getting long for my standards and I wanted to get this up this weekend. I'll have more time to write next week while I'm out of school for Thanksgiving. I'll have a birthday party, Frank and Alice, more Weasleys, and starting on Animagus training. Special guests will include: Sirius Black, James, and Lily Potter's portraits, Hermione Granger, and a special appearance from Moony the Werewolf. I made a few small changes to my other chapters, mainly formatting, but I changed a bunch in the first chapter, so check that out.<strong>


	7. Chapter 7: To Become An Animagus

_**THE PRIDE**_

_**Chapter Seven: To Become An Animagus**_

-Regular Thought-  
>-"Speech"-<br>_-"Parseltongue"-_  
><em>-'Mind Speak'-<em>

* * *

><p>The rest of the day was spent celebrating the birthday of Harry and Neville. We had a cake, a special meal-made up of both of their favorites and prepared by the elves-and we gave them their presents.<p>

Neville got some Herbology and Defense books from Remus and Tonks, a photo album that Augusta had of him growing up (duplicated for Frank and Alice, of course), a basilisk-skin cloak and boots from Harry, and a rare plant called the Flos Germen from me. Harry and I also got him a blank book that he can add parchment to and it will become part of the book when he taps it with his wand for Herbology notes. Frank and Alice gave him a locket with a picture of the three of them in it. Richard gave him a book on famous herbologists, Marina a book on herbs and plants in Potions, and Cecilia a book on plants in Healing.

Harry got the picture frame from me with the wizarding photo of his parents on one side and the two of us on the other. The picture of James and Lily had them just after they came back from their honeymoon. Lily wore a cream-colored dress with gold accents that complemented her hair and eyes nicely. They were curled up together by the fire at Potter Cottage and you could see the love between them. The picture of the two of us had us sitting at the table in Potter Cottage laughing over some private joke. It was taken the day after we started training with Cecilia, Marina, Richard, Remus, and Tonks. We had been working on planning when I made a sarcastic comment about Snape dropping dead of shock when Harry's suddenly good at Potions and he started laughing and I did too.

Remus gave Harry a set of books on Transfiguration, Charms, and Potions that had commentary made by James and Lily and the other Marauders (none by Pettigrew, thankfully). Tonks gave him an auror's training guide and new duelling robes. Alice and Frank collaborated with Remus to find pictures of the Marauders and Rogues (apparently Harry's dad wasn't the only prankster, Lily and her friends called themselves the Rogues, and loved to prank the Marauders) and young Harry with James and Lily to add to his photo album from Hagrid. Cecilia got him a set of books on Healing (as a joke about how often he gets himself hurt). Marina got him books on the potions she had created and said he was welcome in Versaille any time. Richard decided to be different from the others and gave him a photo of Harry and I practicing with our elemental powers (we were making random animals out of the earth). James and Lily asked Remus to go and find the Marauders' Guide To Being A True Prankster and give it to Harry as a present from them. Sirius said that he should go to Grimmauld Place and look in the top of his closet since he already had his present there.

Tomorrow, we plan to go to Grimmauld after Harry's party on the pretext of wanting to hold our conversation there. Harry's party will be at lunch tomorrow and we'll find a way to stall the conversation until after the party. While at Grimmauld, we will reveal our Bond, have a conversation about us joining (or at least working with) the Order, and get Harry's present.

* * *

><p>At Grimmauld Place, we managed to convince them that we will be staying together at night, and that we will be listening in on Order meetings.<p>

We got the present from Sirius, it turned out to be a letter that told us about the Black family secrets and ways so that we could properly take control, and a little set of magical figurines that were shaped like the Marauder's Animagus forms (not including Wormtail) that Sirius had charmed to change into small versions of the people (impressive magic too). According to Sirius's portrait, they were Miniature Moony, Pipsqueak Prongs, and Pint-sized Padfoot. They couldn't talk, but we have their portraits to talk to.

Now we're at Potter Castle working with Remus to become Animagi.

"So, you want to become Animagi?" Remus asked.

"Yes," Harry, Neville and I confirmed.

"Right, well then. Harry, take out the Marauders' Guide To Being A True Prankster and say the password while tapping your wand on page 265. Then we will continue," Remus instructed.

Harry took out the book, opened to page 265, flicked his wrist to take out his wand, and said, "I solemnly swear I am up to no good."

Writing appeared on the page. At the top, in neat, but still rushed, loopy handwriting, the page said:

How To Become An Animagus In Eight Steps  
><span>(With Annotations By The Marauders)

"Wow," I said.

"Yes, it did not take long to become an animagus, the problem was finding out how to do it. The first thing you do is take the Animagus Revealer Potion, which I made yesterday, and you will enter the Trance. You might want to read at the bottom all the way through before you continue. You will need to know what to do when you enter the Trance and meet your animal," Remus said.

Brew Animagus Revealer Potion (3 hour brewing time)

Take Animagus Potion (best done laying down)

Go into the Trance (see animal/s)

Research and study forms (anatomy, instincts, habitats, etc.)

One part at a time, practice changing individual body parts (if you get stuck, use spell Animalia Finite)

Once all body parts have successfully been changed, attempt full transformation (DON'T attempt full transformation before you KNOW that you are ready)

Once full transformation is achieved, conquer the animal's mind (best to make a deal rather than forcing it away)

Practice for short times, changing back to and from the animal form (doing it too often and too many times before you are used to it is very tiring)

It is best if you take the potion while lying down. When you enter the Trance, you will appear in a place that you feel safe in, more often than not, it will also be your animal's natural habitat. Anyone that has organised their mind with Occlumency will appear in whatever they organised their mind as.

If you have an animal, it will appear to you and you should walk to it and look in its eyes. When you look in its eyes, it will allow you to see in its mind in order to understand the animal itself and why it chose you.

If your power level is high enough, or you are very loyal to someone or something and you had a form already, you can have more than one form. In this case, you are to wait until one of them approaches you. This animal will be the one that fits to you the most, and will be the one you should transform into first. Any animal after that will be easier to change into as your body already learned to change.

When learning to transform individual body parts, you concentrate on the image of the animal and will yourself to change. If you get stuck, the spell to reverse it is Animalia Finite. In the event of getting stuck, it is recommended that you do not try transforming on your own.

"Well, that makes sense, I guess. You take the potion, go into the Trance, see your animal/s, look into their eyes and understand it," Neville summarised.

"It's like Legilimency, only rather than reading its mind, you just know… Or at least that's how James and Sirius described it. Pettigrew never really spoke about it, I think understand why now. It probably showed him that he would be a traitorous rat," Remus ended bitterly.

"It's okay, no one could have guessed how he would turn out. Now, can we find out our forms? I want to get started!" I finished impatiently.

"Of course. Now you should all lay down and I'll hand you each a vial of the potion. You should swallow it all at once since it is awful tasting. James later said it was the worst potion he had ever taken and he'd had to take a lot of healing potions. It should take no longer than an hour unless you have more than one form, in which case it may take several hours. Remember what you have to do."

So Harry, Neville, and I simultaneously drank the potion in one gulp and fell into the Trance.

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><p>~Third Person POV~<p>

Ginny appeared in a clearing in the woods at Potter Castle with Harry right behind her with his back to hers. In front of each of them were the same animals only in a male/female form respectively and different colors.

The animals in front of Ginny all had red feathers/fur/scales, and hazel eyes. The animals in front of Harry had black feathers/fur/scales, and emerald eyes. There were a lion, wolf, phoenix, gryffin, stag/doe, snake and owl in front of each of them. Remembering their instructions, they stood still.

The first to approach Harry was the phoenix and the first to approach Ginny was the gryffin. They did as they were told and then the animals came and sat on the right side of both Harry and Ginny. They were there because of the Bond, magical creatures came to the bonded as their guides. Then the reverse came to them. Ginny had the phoenix and Harry had the gryffin. This time, when they looked at the animals' minds, they were told that because their bond mate had the animal, they would as well. Those two animals sat on their left sides. The next animals were the snake and owl. Then the opposites. Then came the stag and doe. Then the lioness came to Ginny and the wolf came to Harry. Then the lion and other wolf. Just as before, the animals stood to either side of them.

They now stood with a line of animals on both sides. From right to left on Harry's side, it was lion, stag, owl, phoenix, Harry, gryffin, snake, wolf. On Ginny's side it was a wolf, doe, snake, gryffin, Ginny, phoenix, owl, lioness. It matched up so that there were seven on either side of the two people.

With Neville, there were four animals, a brown bear, a beaver, a wolf, and a lion. The first to come to him, was the bear. The beaver came next. The lion and wolf were for the same reasons as Harry and Ginny with the added part of his loyalty to them, as leaders, friends, and family.

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><p>~Remus's POV~<p>

I was getting a bit worried now. Normally they Trance takes less time than this. For Neville, it took about three and a half hours. Harry and Ginny, however, have been in the Trance for over six hours. James never told us, but I'm pretty sure he had more than one form, considering how long he was in it and that all of the Potters were typically very powerful. There's also their Bond to contend with.

Just as I started to really get worried, they both shifted positions and slowly woke.

"Welcome back to the land of the living you two. How many forms did you have?" I said when they had regained their bearings.

"We have seven shared forms. A lion, wolf, phoenix, gryffin, deer, snake, and owl. The phoenix and gryffin are because of the Bond. They are meant to be our guides. Then there came the snake and owl, the stag and doe, and the lioness and the wolf. We were also told that if one of us got the form, the other would be able to access that form easier than someone normally would, and that we should try them in the order they came to us since it was a different order for both of us," Ginny said.

"Alright. We can start tomorrow. Now, it's time for a snack. Then you can all go take a nap before supper. I'm sure you're all tired and hungry. Misjief came by to ask if we would like anything to eat, and I told him to deliver the food to your rooms when you call. We'll have to brew another potion after you manage your forms. That will be used to induct you into the Marauders. Start thinking up nicknames. You may think of having a separate name for each form," I told the three of them.

"Well I've already slept a while, so I'll just go eat and hang out with my parents. Bye guys," Neville said.

"Bye Neville," Harry and Ginny said, before going back to what I assumed was a mental conversation from their various facial expressions.

"Goodbye Neville. I may come up in a bit to talk with Alice, since I want to ask something about Lily, and she was her best friend," I said.

"Okay. Bye Remus."

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><p><em><strong>AN: Sorry this is so short, but it's all I could think of for this chapter. I also wanted to get this up today. To any and all who celebrate it, MERRY CHRISTMAS. To any who don't, HAPPY HOLIDAYS (because I'm too lazy to write out any other holidays). To any who don't celebrate a holiday at all, I HOPE YOU LIKE THE CHAPTER. I wanted too put this one up today because of the birthday presents Neville and Harry got. I'll try to have another chapter up later this week. Oh, and I'd like to add that I'll give an explanation for why Harry and Ginny seem so powerful later, but I'm not making them super-powerful. I also have a reason for all of their powers and some things will come back later in a more important way.<strong>_

_**NEXT CHAPTER: A flashback of the meeting at Grimmauld Place, their first Order meeting, and a time skip to the first day of school. I may have them scout of the Chamber if it doesn't get too long.**_


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